Browns Daily Wrap: Ready for a comeback

On Tuesday’s edition of “Cleveland Browns Daily, Driven by Liberty Ford,” co-hosts Vic Carucci and Nathan Zegura were joined by CBS broadcaster Solomon Wilcots and Je’Rod Cherry to discuss the adversity and leadership doubts this team has faced thus far this season and how they feel the Browns are going to approach Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Nathan and Vic also spoke with Browns linebacker Jabaal Sheard and defensive back Buster Skrine. Jabaal and Buster both touched on how the players have had to stick together through the tough times this season and how they must to step up from their losses in the last two games and improve to move forward.

Here are some highlights:

Nathan Zegura: “The coach is responsible for only so much. You don’t know, as a casual observer, if they were prepared or not. The execution was poor on Sunday. I will give coach Rob Chudzinski a passing grade, because I think he weathered the storm well with the Trent Richardson trade. I would venture to say it is a quarterback-position-driven league. It is a difficult situation he entered into, and those things will be addressed in this offseason. I would give him a passing grade, but also an incomplete because all the questions will be answered in the offseason and in the next year. I think overall he has done a good job with the talent on the roster. It’s a process and I think his ultimate grade will become very clear over the next two seasons.”

Vic Carucci: “I give Coach Chudzinski a passing grade so far. Having three different quarterbacks is your starting point and now you have an injury at the position again. My problem was primarily with the game at Cincinnati. I’m definitely not happy with what looked like stage fright. Is some of that on the head coach? Sure. But I think the players have some of that on them as well. They need to be able to get that. …I don’t think there is a confidence issue with Brandon Weeden. I don’t think that’s the problem. If anything, he is very confident. He is so internally focused that he doesn’t allow himself to be pushed by the stress of what the crowd is doing. I don’t see a rattled guy. I see a guy who has not delivered and has his share of mistakes.”

Buster Skrine: “We are just trying to build something great here in Cleveland. As a group, we know that we are a good team and we have to go back and evaluate our mistakes and become a better team. The things I was doing wrong were easy to correct; there were things I didn’t do last year. Coaches helped me a lot, also. My ball skills have improved a lot more compared to last year. In the slot, you have to be better side-to-side and you have to be smarter in the slot. My dad always told me I was a good player and I’ve always been a confident person and I knew coming in the league that cornerback is one of the hardest positions to play. We have to become a better team in the red zone and we are working on that as a group and we will get it done.”

Jabaal Sheard: “(Losing to the Steelers leave) a bitter taste because it wasn’t even a close game and it really hurts. By the end of the day, we were already looking at the next game and focusing on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Ray Horton calls plays fit towards the players. I want to win every one of these next five games. All of the games versus the Jacksonville Jaguars this year have been close. We have to focus in on one team at a time. You can’t look too far ahead; you have to focus on this team that you are playing next.”

Solomon Wilcots: “The Jacksonville Jaguars will come into Cleveland and will play hard. They will be ready to play. We have seen the Jaguars take every team they have played to the last minute of the game because they do play hard. This Cleveland Browns team will search high and low to get a quarterback in this upcoming draft. The Browns will have to get it right. You just better get one that matches what (offensive coordinator) Norv Turner usually wants – someone with great accuracy and arm strength. I think this draft is about offense, putting more explosive playmakers on offense.”

Je’Rod Cherry: “Anyone can do things when it’s easy; it’s when it’s hard that it matters. What gets you out of a football game? There are so many things. You have to have a mentality that, ‘If I have to die out there today, then I will.’ People follow you and say, ‘If he is not doing it, then I am not doing it.’ You have playoffs on the line and if you don’t see a fired up, galvanized team, that is all you need to know that they do not want it. If you are matching them or surpassing them, then you will lose that one-on-one matchup and that’s what we saw on Sunday.”